


It Took A Near-Death Experience To Say It (COMPLETED)

by Michael_Demos



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Almost Drowning, Father-Son, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22934914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michael_Demos/pseuds/Michael_Demos
Summary: A short thingy I did. Sonic goes ice skating alone, gets in trouble, Tom rescues him and Sonic calls him Dad.
Relationships: Sonic the Hedgehog & Tom Wachowski
Comments: 29
Kudos: 294





	1. Chapter 1

Sonic crept slowly down the stairs and into the quiet kitchen. He could have run- he  _ wanted _ to run- but he might wake up his… friends. Tom and Maddie  _ were _ just his friends, right? Sure, they’d taken him in. Made him part of the family when he’d had nobody. They’d even moved his stuff from his cave in the woods to their attic, making it his room. His own room.

Lately, though, he’d been thinking of the Wachowskis as more than friends. They reminded him, especially Maddie, of Longclaw. He missed his foster mother a lot, but it was getting easier with every day. He’d accidentally called Maddie “Mom” once or twice, and she had promised not to tell Tom… who he was reluctant to call “Dad.” It wasn’t that he didn’t think of the cop as a father figure- he did- Sonic just didn’t know how he’d react. What if he got angry?

Shoving his thoughts aside, the blue-furred teen stared at the snow. The sun was just rising; he’d gotten up early so Tom couldn’t scold him for doing what he was about to do. The hedgehog tiptoed to the front door and opened it, then stepped out into the snow.

_ Crunch. _

Of course he’d seen snow before. He’d been on Earth for a little over ten years, and that meant ten winters. However, he’d never gotten to do the one winter thing he wanted more than anything- ice skating in the morning when the rising sun made everything sparkle. There was a lake not far from his old cave that was always frozen over, but every time he had wanted to skate, the people of Green Hills were there. Now though, they knew he existed, so he could go anytime.

Once out of the house, Sonic sped up, kicking up a wave of snow behind him as he ran into the forest. When he reached the lake, he was amazed to find that nobody was there. He briefly wondered why, then wasted no time in running out onto the ice. Turns out, that wasn’t such a good idea.

“Whooooooaaaaaaahhhhhh-!!”

Sonic windmilled his arms frantically as he fought to keep balance. He couldn’t seem to stop or turn or anything, and soon crashed into a stump on the other side of the lake.

* * *

A few minutes later, Sonic tried again. He ran out onto the ice, and this time didn’t try to halt his slide. As he neared the far bank, he leapt up, letting his momentum carry him towards a tree. He turned midair, pushing off, and landed back on the ice again. Hey, that was fun! He slid across the ice like that for a few hours, then something went wrong.

He must have aimed a little too far to the right, because he skidded past the tree that was his target and slammed into a snowbank. Once he’d dug himself out, the hedgehog stood up, stomach rumbling. It was time to head back to the house for breakfast- if he hurried, he could make it before Tom and Maddie got down. However, as soon as Sonic took a step, his ankle flared up with pain and he gasped, sitting down hard. Sonic tried to stand again, but this time his entire leg wouldn’t even hold his weight. “Alright,” he muttered, scooting across the ice, “the hard way it is.” He winced with pain, hoping it wasn’t broken.

He got halfway across the lake with no problem, but he hadn’t thought of what his repeated jumps onto the ice had done. The ice started cracking. Sonic looked down nervously, and moved faster, but this only made it worse. With a sharp snap, the section he was on separated from the rest, and Sonic started sliding backwards as the slab tilted. “No, no, no…”

With a splash and a yell, the teen fell into the freezing water below. He managed to claw his way to the surface, clinging to the ice slab. Jeez, that was  _ cold!! _ Trying not to panic, he tried climbing out, scrabbling for purchase on the dangerously slick surface, but only slipped a little further down. “Help!” Sonic yelled. Surely someone was awake by now. Tom had to have noticed his disappearance by now. He  _ had  _ to-

“Tom!!” He managed to pull himself most of the way out of the water, but before he could lift his legs up, there was another sharp crack, and the section of ice shot upwards without warning. Sonic toppled back into the water with a shout of surprise and fear. As he broke the surface once more, he thought he heard a familiar voice nearby. “Tom-“ Then the ice slab crashed back down, dunking the hedgehog once more. He barely had time to take a breath.

* * *

It was sort of peaceful under the water, aside from the piercing cold, though by now Sonic was pretty much numb. It was quiet, and kind of cushioning, and it would have been almost nice if Sonic hadn’t been in such a bad situation.  _ Tom, _ he thought, reaching up to the hole he’d fallen through. He could vaguely make out the form of someone who he hoped was Tom crawling across the ice above him.  _ Help me! _

It was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open, and his lungs were starting to ache. He blinked slowly, watching the man, who had entered the water and was swimming down towards him. As Sonic stopped sinking and settled on the bottom of the lake, he temporarily forgot where he was and opened his mouth to call out. That, of course, made the water rush into his lungs, and his  vision began to fade.  _ Tom… no,  _ not  _ Tom. _

_ Dad… _

* * *

“Sonic!!” Tom was shivering, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was the frighteningly still hedgehog he’d pulled from the lake and onto dry land. “Sonic! Wake up, kid!” There was no answer, and his heart beat rapidly with fear.

“Okay… CPR,” he muttered. He turned Sonic’s head to the side, allowing the water to drain out of his mouth. He turned his friend’s head back to the center, then began pressing on his furry chest. 1, 2, 3… Tom didn’t stop until he got to thirty, then he moved slightly to be able to reach Sonic’s mouth. Pinching the hedgehog’s nose, the man tilted his head back and opened his mouth, then began to blow into it. A few months ago, this might have been the strangest thing on his list- giving mouth-to-mouth to a hedgehog, even if the hedgehog in question was blue, impossibly speedy, and the size of a nine-year-old- but this was  _ Sonic _ . Tom had driven the little guy to San Francisco and defended him against an insane evil genius with robotic drones. He even thought of him as- well, as crazy as it seemed, his son- and now that same son was in grave danger yet again. He continued trying to revive Sonic.

* * *

**(Possible bonus scene to come)**

* * *

**  
** Sonic opened his eyes with a jolt as his body seized up in a cough. He tried to sit up, still coughing, and a very pale, very concerned Tom Wachowski appeared above him and gently shoved him back down. “Don’t try to sit up just yet,” the man ordered, and Sonic noticed that his voice was shaking.

Tom held him steady until he‘d coughed up enough of the water to breathe properly. “...Dad,” the hedgehog mumbled, still woozy, then another round of coughing shook his body. When the coughs had subsided, Tom helped him sit up. “Are you okay?” The cop barely waited for Sonic’s nod of confirmation before launching into an angry tirade.

“Then what were you thinking?! You know you can’t swim, and haven’t I told you several times how dangerous ice can be? You should have waited for me, or Maddie, or woken us up! You could have frozen to death, or drowned- you almost  _ did  _ drown, Sonic!! I can’t believe you’d be that reckless; what if I hadn’t been here?! What if you’d-“

Tom was scared, Sonic realized guiltily. He didn’t know what he’d do if he lost Tom, and he thought about that a lot- but he hadn’t guessed that Tom felt the same way about him. “Dad,” he said, then as Tom stopped talking with a look of surprise, he quickly shook his head, hoping he wasn’t too red in the face. “Tom! I said Tom!” He looked at Tom’s expression and blurted out, “ _I’m sorry, I just wanted to skate so badly like the other kids and this is the first year I’ve been able to do it without hiding and it always looked so fun and I got so excited that I didn’t even think-_ “

“Hey,” Tom said, pulling him into a hug. “It’s okay.”

Sonic relaxed into the hug, enjoying it. Then Tom pulled back. “You scared me a lot, though. Don’t ever do something like that again, okay?” He offered a smile.

Sonic answered with a shaky smile. “Okay, Donut Lord.”

Tom laughed, getting to his feet, then helped Sonic up. He didn’t notice Sonic’s ankle until the hedgehog tried to take a step and collapsed into him.

“Whoa there- hey, what happened?” Tom looked at the ankle while Sonic explained. It looked swollen, and he didn’t think it was broken- just sprained. He’d have Maddie take a look at it when they got back to the house. In the meantime… Tom bent down. “Come on,” he said. “Get on.” He motioned to his back, and Sonic hauled himself up. The man straightened up again, and carried the hedgehog piggyback through the woods.

* * *

“Now,” Tom asked, looking over his shoulder, “what did you call me earlier?”

Sonic’s heart skipped a beat. “I- uh- Donut Lord?”

“No, not that,” the man said. “When you first woke up.”

Sonic bit his lip, looking away. “I… might have _kinda_ accidentally called you Dad- _but I didn’t mean to I swear, it just slipped out and I-_ “

“You didn’t mean it?”

Sonic glanced up. Something in Tom’s face made him hesitate, and he sighed. “...yeah, I guess I did. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Tom said with a smile. “Never feel that you have to apologize for being my son.”

“Wh-what?” Sonic was too stunned to move. “Your…?”

“I guess it’s kind of silly,” Tom said, “but the closest thing Maddie and I have to a kid of our own is Jojo. Then you came along, and I thought after I took you to San Francisco that would be that.” He laughed self-consciously. “What I hadn’t counted on was how much you’d grown on me. Maddie and I have talked about it, and we were going to ask you today after breakfast, but… well, we were considering officially adopting you into the family.”

Sonic was speechless. He opened his mouth to reply, closed it, then opened it again. Eventually he managed a response. “So… you’d be my- my  _ actual  _ dad…” He looked down, and an incredulous smile slowly spread across his face. “I’d have a dad.  _ You’d  _ be my dad.” He looked back up, eyes shining. “Tom-  _ Dad-  _ thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome, Sonic,” Tom said with a chuckle. “Now, let’s hurry up and get back to the house. We’re both soaked, and she’ll have less of a fit if we’re early.”


	2. Bonus Scene!!

Sonic was back. On  _ his  _ world. Standing in the very sunflower field where he’d picked that flower the day he’d left. He didn’t know how he’d gotten here, but at the moment, the only thing on his mind was finding Longclaw. He immediately took off running, speeding through the grass without even a look around. He didn’t know what had happened to the owl, but if  _ he _ was here, after all these years, maybe-  _ just maybe _ -

He skidded to a halt in front of their house in the tree. It looked exactly the same as the day he’d left, and he found that, although he’d run up the trunk already, he couldn’t go in. What would he find inside? Sonic was barely aware of the trembling of his hands as he stood motionless in front of the slightly opened door. “I can’t,” he whispered eventually.

“You can’t what, Sonic?”

The hedgehog whirled around, nearly falling off the branch. “Longclaw?!” He couldn’t believe his eyes. His foster mother was perched on the branch a few feet away, looking at him kindly. “How did- what- but- I saw- you were-“

Longclaw chuckled, spreading her wings. “Come with me, Sonic,” she said.

A few minutes later, Sonic had followed her to the sunflower field. “What happened, Longclaw?” He asked, sitting in front of her. “How did you escape the e- the echidnas? 

“That’s not important now, Sonic,” the owls replied. “You’re dreaming.”

“I’m  _ what?! _ ” Sonic said, eyes wide. “But- the lake- I’ve got to get back! Tom jumped in after me and he’s gonna drown too if I don’t-“

“Shh,” Longclaw said, stretching out a wing and pulling him close. “It’s alright, Sonic. You’ll be alright, and so will your father.”

“My- my father?” Sonic looked up at her, confused.

Longclaw nodded. “You never knew your own father, or a family at all before me, then you had the good fortune to encounter Tom and his Maddie. They took you in, like I did, and are raising you, like I did. Don’t think that you’re betraying me,” she added as Sonic opened his mouth to speak. “It’s alright to find a father and mother in your friends.” She paused then, and looked down at the hedgehog sadly.

“Longclaw?” Sonic asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s time for you to wake up now,” she said. “Tom is very worried about you, and for good reason. Wake up, and live your life.”

Sonic’s vision started to white out, and he reached out to Longclaw, who seemed to be receding into the distance. His legs wouldn’t move. “Longclaw!!” He shouted in fear.

“Don’t worry,” she said, her voice faint. “Remember that I love you, Sonic, and always will, no matter what.”


	3. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long; I’m not very good at writing cute scenes.

“I can’t believe you two,” Maddie said sternly, glaring over her shoulder at Tom and Sonic. “You should know better, Sonic, than to run off on your own in the middle of winter. Tom, there are better ways to rescue a drowning hedgehog than to dive into freezing cold water!” She sighed, turning back to the sink where she was filling up a basin. Once it was full, the woman brought it over to where Tom and Sonic were on the couch wrapped in several layers of blankets and set it down.

“Put your feet in,” she told them. “I’ll go make you some hot chocolate then put your wet clothes in the dryer. In the meantime, you two huddle together.” With that, Maddie left the room.

“...is she mad?” Sonic asked finally, slowly lowering his bare feet into the warm water.

Tom shook his head. “Just very worried. You nearly drowned, and we both came back half frozen. You’re like a son to her too, you know.”

“Huh.” This wasn’t much of a surprise to Sonic, given how similar Maddie was to Longclaw. “I guess I’d better tell you that I’ve called her Mom?”

Tom looked at Sonic. “Really? And how long has this been going on?”

“A few weeks,” Sonic admitted. “I made her promise not to tell you because I thought you’d be mad or something.”

Tom laughed. “Are you kidding? You can call us Mom and Dad all you want, Sonic. We love you.”

Sonic’s lips curved up in a smile and he snuggled close to Tom. “I love you too, Dad.”


End file.
